Version 5.9 release and further plans feature - Rise of the Ages mod for Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots

Ok, so 5.9 is here. On a functional level, it all works. On a balance level there might still be some work left, need to test. On a graphical/animation level, there's some bugs present (mostly aesthetic). These will be hopefully be ironed out in 5.91.

So without further ado, here's the changelog:

NEW FEATURES:

UNIQUE BUILDINGS

• nations now benefit from several unique buildings
• there are currently 3 unique buidings available (more to come)
  • Imperial Tagmata (Medieval Age) - Romans, Turks, Greeks
    • can produce powerful Byzantine units
    • can have only 1 but can be rebuilt
    • becomes obsolete after Medieval Age
  • Chivalric Order (Gunpowder Age) - Romans, Germans
    • can produce powerful Knights
    • can have only 1 but can be rebuilt
    • becomes obsolete after Gunpowder Age
  • Naval Forts (Gunpowder Age - Information Age) - French (IV,V,VI), British (VI,VII), American (VII,VIII)
    • essentially water-based forts that can protect an area from ships
    • have a formidable defence and attack and are hard to take down
    • can have only 1 per city and must be built within city range

ADMIRALS

• huge ships that can boost a fleet's armor value the same way generals can
• can use Ambush but not other general powers
• benefits from same upgrades as normal generals
• can attack and is formidable in combat
• can have more than 1 at a time but cost increases based on fleet size
• upgrades its stats every 2 ages
• available from Classical Age
• have 999 craft so as to disable the use of unusable abilities (such as Forced March, Decoys and Entrench)
• built at Dock

DEFENSIBLE BARRACKS

• Barracks now have limited attack and range
• become less effective with each age
• not a good defense by any means, but it might take out those pesky small groups of raiders

UNITS:

• NEW UNIT:
  • Naval Artillery (Industrial Age)
    • long range bombard ships a.k.a. monitor ships
    • useful at taking out buildings at long range but vulnerable to all ships
• 2 NEW UNIQUES (FROM UNIQUE BUILDINGS)
  • Byzantine Warrior
    • very strong and can attack from range as well as melee
    • expensive but no support cost
    • only built at Imperial Tagmata
    • weak vs archery units
  • Byzantine Cavalry
    • very strong and can attack from range as well as melee
    • expensive but no support cost
    • come in pairs
    • only built at Imperial Tagmata
    • weak vs pikemen
• GENERALS
  
  • craft abilities color coded to discern which powers can be used by Generals and which by Admirals
  • Ambush size increased
  • Forced March duration increased
  • Ambush cost changed to 999 (workaround so that Admirals can use it)
• CRUISE MISSILES
  
  • Cruise missile damage vs buildings increased as well as accuracy
• Junkers re-enabled and available to Germans and Russians to add some diversity

BUILDINGS

• CITIES
  • economic radius increased (so you can build Naval Forts further from the shore)
  • garrison increased
• Disabled ALL ~1 million resources buildings (finally!)

NATIONS

• FRENCH
  • Generals have double craft generation speed instead of usual 75% bonus craft (workaround so that Admirals can work...)
• GERMANS
  • removed Landknechts so as to not have too many uniques because of new unique buildings
• ROMANS
  • Removed Arquebusiers from Romans to compensate for the new units
  • nerfed bonuses
• INDIANS
  • Cruise Missile Sub
    • can now build only one
    • has slightly increased range
    • increased size and changed model

MODELS/SKINS

• Re-modeled/re-skinned units
  • Turtle Ship
  • Tlaxcalan Warriors
  • Jaguar Warriors
  • RAH-66 Commanche
  • Knight Hospitaller
  • Foot Knight
  • Chola Ship
  • Cruise Missile Sub

• Increased size for Aircraft Carrier, Advanced Battleship and Missile Cruiser

MISC

• Changed Huge map size by 10%, Big Huge remains unchanged (couldn't fix errors on the maps that crash in Big Huge size - the only possible way to do this was to lower Big Huge back to original size, which I didn't want to do, so I compensated by increasing Huge size as much as possible so you can play on this size instead!)
• Many descriptions fixed and/or changed to be more informative
• Fixed missing sounds for several units
• and other minor fixes and changes I can't remember at this point :)

FUTURE PLANS

In the short-term I will release 5.91, which will feature a new unique building or two as well as polish up some of the graphic and balance issues still present in 5.9. Feedback would greatly be appreciated as I can't possibly test all of the variables in this game, so if you find anything in need of fixing, please post it here and I'll try to fix it in 5.9.

In the long-term, I will add enough unique buildings so that every nation has one. I've already planned which buildings I want to add, just hope that it's possible otherwise I will have to cut corners - again.

Leave your comments below and tell me what you think of this version. I think it's the most definitive version yet!